Stop OS X Server Registering in DNS

[Zoom7000]

We are running two 10.*.*.* networks at our school:

 

10.193.*.* - Main Network for PCs, Printers, Server, the lot!

10.0.0.* - Separate Network for Backup purposes only.

 

We have turned off all DNS listening and registering on our DNS servers (Window Server 2003) for the 10.0.0.* network adapters. However, the OS X Server is still registering it's 10.0.0.* and it's causing issues with DeployStudio. Is there anyway I can tell the Mac Server to stop registering that particular adapter address in DNS?

 

Off Topic - Woo Hoo! 400!

[Zoom7000]

Anyone?

[AntonioRocco]

Hi

 

It all depends on what version the server is? If it's 10.5 then DNS is absolutely required for the server itself simply to provide stability. The service does not have to run on the Server itself just as long as its running somewhere else on the same network will do.

 

Clearly in a mature Windows environment that would be your DC.

 

What 10.5 Server does is continually bleat (make requests or register for want of a better word etc) for something that it can resolve itself to. You'll see the system.log filling itself up with entries saying something like "DNS hostname is not available, please repair DNS" etc.

 

It's easy enough to fix. Create an A Record with associated reverse pointer using the DNS Snap in Module on your DC and enter the DNS Server's IP address as the Primary DNS Server in the Mac Server's Network Preferences Pane. Make sure the server can resolve itself on both pointers. Use nslookup, dig or host from the command line to do this on the Server itself.

 

Finally you could issue:

 

sudo changeip -checkhostname

 

From the server itself and if it returns "the names match, there is nothing to change" that should be it.

 

To answer your question and AFAIK there's no way to stop it from registering itself not without breaking it in a major way. With 10.4 Server its should not be a problem and if it is there's something else going on that has probably nothing to do with the server.

 

Out of interest what exactly is the problem with Deploy Studio? I'm struggling to see why it would give it a problem?

 

Antonio Rocco (ACSA)

Edited March 2, 2009 by AntonioRocco

[BOFHxx]

This is an old thread but it's still a valid problem, particularly in these times of SANs and dedicated iSCSI adapters.

 

You can use dsconfigad -restrictDDNS "en0" on the server. See https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT200007